Real-Time Monitoring of Blood Parameters in the Intensive Care Unit: State-of-the-Art and Perspectives

The number of patients in intensive care units has increased over the past years. Critically
ill patients are treated with a real time support of the instruments that offer monitoring of relevant
blood parameters. These parameters include blood gases, lactate, and glucose, as well as pH and temperature.
Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, continuous management of dynamic deteriorating
parameters in patients is more relevant than ever before. This narrative review aims to summarize the
currently available literature regarding real-time monitoring of blood parameters in intensive care.
Both, invasive and non-invasive methods are described in detail and discussed in terms of general
advantages and disadvantages particularly in context of their use in different medical fields but
especially in critical care. The objective is to explicate both, well-known and frequently used as well as
relatively unknown devices. Furtehrmore, potential future direction in research and development of
realtime sensor systems are discussed. Therefore, the discussion section provides a brief description
of current developments in biosensing with special emphasis on their technical implementation. In
connection with these developments, the authors focus on different electrochemical approaches to
invasive and non-invasive measurements in vivo.